Breaking down Pritzker’s historic third-term win

Governor Pritzker touching on Democratic wins while giving his victory speech here in Chicago. This is the first time Illinois has elected a governor to a third term that's a Democrat. They have elected two Republican governors to a third and then a fourth term. It's one of several headlines Illinois made last night. Governor Pritzker is expected to speak in a couple of minutes, but first, political consultant Tom Serafin is back. We spoke with him yesterday. He is here to talk results. Good morning, Tom. Good morning to you. Actually, first we just- Nice to see you. Good, nice to see you. Yeah. We just got breaking news from AP. The Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, mentioned he wasn't seeking reelection. This just came down. Just what's your reaction to that news? Well, that was somewhat anticipated in the corridors. But he had been saying up until last week that the polls were wrong and that the Republicans were gonna win this thing. So he shepherded a ship that was destroyed overnight by the Democratic Party. Although I think more nationally, the Republicans lost this election cycle, desperately lost it. But I think the Democrats did a nice job staying on focus and on message. And the party is moving forward and they have a large constituent to deal with now. And they have 18% of the independents actually moved over from the Republican side and voted for the Democrats. So that's the middle. I mean, they have to be able to tack towards the middle. I think Rahm Emanuel has made some very good points about what you need to do in order to get elected and elected president in 28. So it's gonna be an exciting year for you all. We have so much to talk to you about, Tom, with the federal and then statewide races. I want to stick with federal. We had Senator Tammy Duckworth in last hour, and her tone was very one of extending an olive branch to the Republican Party and really even the Trump administration. My colleague Anthony Ponce pressed her on, you know, will there be lawsuits? Will there be an impeachment? And she was like, look, the Democrats are focused on working for the people, on lowering Lowering gas prices, lowering the price of food, making sure that the economy is strong. Do you think that's all smoke and mirrors, or do you really think that the Democratic Party will stay on that track, maybe enhancing their chances of a Democratic president in 2028? Well, you kind of answered that question, you're absolutely correct. In order to establish themselves at the presidential level of 28, they have to put a lot of the problems behind them. And it's interesting, if you tack over the last year, the prices of gasoline, as the As the gasoline prices have gone up. The reputation of Donald Trump has gone down. They're in parallel with each other. So, and then it comes out this week that the oil prices and the cost of oil Well, it has happened. hasn't been really hurting the oil refineries. They've doubled their profit margins over 25. And this is 26. So obviously the White House lost the control of the economy some time ago and they've been struggling with it. And the problem that the Republicans had, Donald Trump kept saying, you gotta get out the vote. The mega voters had to get out the vote. He did not talk to people and how they were actually feeling. Some people like Donald Trump, mega like Donald Trump, but they sat home last night because he's not talking to their feelings. You can't tell somebody they don't feel some way. Everybody feels when they go to the gas plant, we all feel it. Everybody feels it when somebody has to be conscripted to go to war. Everybody feels it in that family. So you can't argue with people's feelings. You can say I understand and I want to do this, but they didn't do that. I mean, it was all about turning out the base rather than accepting what the voters were telling them and then dealing with it. It was a good lesson for a lot of people in the world of politics. And I think what Tammy Tammy Duckworth is telling you, we have to do this in the next seven, eight months. Because then we're in the thick of the presidential contest. In the next seven months, we have to have an ethics piece of legislation where you ban insider trading, you ban money after you leave Congress. You do something of a large proportion like that. There's going to be a parallel operation to go after all the Republicans and impeach and all those other things. But if that takes the headlines away from what they're really trying to do, they won't be successful in 28. And you mentioned just in seven months that the next presidential election will be on the minds of lawmakers, on voters. Voters also made their voices heard last night, an overwhelmingly voted Democratic taking both the Senate and the House. Did voters send a message that maybe for the next presidential election, they're kind of wanting to break with the MAGA path of the Republican Party and seek a more moderate or just kind of different avenue of the Republican Party? Right, I think that we talked a lot about affordability before the election, but affordability is a multi-syllable word that means I don't have enough money for gasoline this weekend to take my kid to the soccer games. I don't have enough money to take my kids to school because I have to pay for the diesel gas because I drive a truck. And diesel is $6, $7, $8 a gallon, and I can't afford to use the truck because I don't have the money for the fuel. So the affordability when you break it down into real life, People understand, and the Republicans were not able to do that, some of the Democrats did. But the Democratic Party, you actually took the center, 18% of that center, and they moved to the left, which is gonna be good for Brandon Johnson in the mayoral campaign. But they have to be able to show the country that they aren't gonna be what Donald Trump was has been. Somebody who goes after the press, goes after the voters, goes after this, goes after that, somebody who wants peace. He wants to be able to make things affordable and doesn't wanna go to war every time there's an opportunity. So there's gonna be a lot of that going on. I think Rahm Emanuel, the former mayor of Chicago, who's tacking towards the middle and turned 45 people into Democrats in 2006, 7, 8 and gave Obama a veto proof majority in the House of Representatives. He was the last one to do that until yesterday. 45 and a lot of them were blue dog Democrats, which means they were conservative. Yesterday, they didn't have to do that. They actually tacked to the left. So in order to answer your question directly, to make the Republicans and the center feel comfortable, the left has got to do something to help them along. So the left and the Democrats have to decide who's gonna be running the Democratic Party. Is it gonna be the AOC group, Or is it going to be the- The moderates who are going to try to bring people together and heal. All right. If they heal, it could be democrats for a very long time. All right, Tom, we've got such limited time, but you're giving us good information. I want to get back to the state of Illinois. So Governor Pritzker, you know, made his victory speech last night, and I found it a little ironic. That's because he talked about, you know, I understand working people in this state saying that we need to drive down prices for you. You deserve a respectable home. You deserve to be able to bring home groceries. But during his Two terms in office. 63 distinct tax and fee increases, 63 under Governor Pritzker, tax and fee increases. This is... So did people just forget about that? I mean, I don't know that Darren Bailey really had a chance, maybe downstate he did, but the majority of the population is upstate here in Chicago. So maybe Pritzker was gonna win either way, but I guess putting that aside, what does Governor Pritzker need to do in his third term here to continue to keep people supporting him I am in the state of Illinois. Well, he's got to get at the corruption issue. He's got to get at the more moribund legislature in Springfield. There's gonna be a huge fight for the next speaker of the House of Representatives. That's gonna be very controversial. You've got the candidates for mayor right now at the board of elections trying to knock each other off the ballot. JP is gonna have to look after the state, but he's running for president. He's certainly in the top ten candidates of the Democratic Democratic Party for president. And you talk to people from New York and LA and Texas, they really like what he's doing, they like his messaging. People in Illinois may not like him too much, but people around the country like a lot of what he's doing, going after Donald Trump, etc. But at this time, it's his third term, you look at Jim Thompson's third term, the Republican governor in the 80s, he made an effort, he saved the White Sox, he did some interesting things. The bottom line is here, we have a problem, 11 counties downstate voted to secede yesterday. Now there are over 40 counties in Illinois that have taken a non-binding referendum and passed it in the elections where they wanted to secede from Illinois, because downstate, there are no jobs, there's no commerce, there are universities and there are prisons. Downstate is hurting right now, so you have to pay attention to where the hurt is, and where the lack of jobs are. And when you talk about the grocery tax, I saw a lot of commercials this season, people saying, I voted against the grocery tax, we killed the grocery tax. Yeah, and in the same legislation, they gave authorization to local municipalities to put the grocery tax right back on, and a lot of them did. I mean, it was smoke and mirrors. But it sounds good that we took a grocery tax off, but we gave the locals the opportunity to tack the same tax on and they did do that. So he's gonna have to take a real close look at what's going on in Illinois. We are financially stressed, our kids aren't educated. Huge bureaucracy, $10 billion bureaucracy with the new school board in Chicago. I mean, Jessica Biggs, who won this race last night, ran a real smart campaign. And now she's at the level of every major leader in the state of Illinois. She's potentially gubernatorial, senatorial candidate, depending on the next four years ago. I mean, she's a player, just like. The mayor, just like the Cook County board president, just like the park district, just like the head of the CTA and the new RTA organization. She's at the table with $10 billion. She's going to create an organization and a bureaucracy to teach our kids that are suffering so much with lack of education. I mean, that's what's huge for Chicago is this board of education and the money. You've got a player. Hey, Tom, we gotta cut you off. I'm sorry. We're out of time here, but thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate it. I had too much coffee. It was a hell of a day. You know what? I get it. It was a late night. Thank you.